Several means have been devised for fixing the soil or for covering it. However, these present solutions often are of relatively high cost and are somewhat complex in construction while not always giving the desired protective results.
For anchoring of underwater pipelines a continuous dumbbell tube system is disclosed by the Murphy U.S. Pat. No. 3,779,027. However, this tube system extends only a short distance away from the pipeline and thereby has too narrow width to prevent undermining of the pipeline. Furthermore, the filling of the tubular envelope with ballast material takes place after the tubular envelope has been installed over the pipeline. This method of filling which does not utilize gravity cannot and is not supposed to totally fill out the cross-section of the tube.
Similar disadvantages has the Keith U.S. Pat. No. 3,793,845.
Another existing, so called Gabion system is used for shore protection, harbour construction, road construction, and the like. The area to be stabilized is covered with separate side-by-side boxes of wire mesh which are filled manually with stones. Because of the large required volume of stones and the extensive use of labour work involved, this system is very expensive.